January 27, 2013

Women in Combat

I hate to throw water on the progressive sense of fairness and equal opportunity, but sometimes practical matters have weight. As a retired union pipefitter, we encourage women to become pipefitters. The problem is that they do not have the upper body strength to lift and carry heavy loads. But, the politics precludes that the topic is ever brought up for discussion. The question is, is the woman strong enough to carry a wounded soldier out of harm's way? A serious set of problems with women in the barracks is due to sexuality. You have to have separate bathrooms, which is added time and expense in the barracks, making outposts more expensive, all this during this period of a shrinking military budget. There is no denying that young men and women are attracted to each other, and that is a predictable reality. Pheromones are powerful and too frequently override rational behavior. Tell us what a young man should think of when he watches a woman walk down the corridor. Sex can get ugly with courtship behavior, flirting, relationships broken off,
jealosy, favoritism, partial nudity, and the act of sex in the
barracks. Do we punish soldiers if they have sex together? Or just touch each other? And then there's the real and perceived favoritism when women use their sexual power to gain favoritism from non-coms and officers, which would not happen in all male outfit. How is that good for morale? How does that make the combat situation better? How many women get pregnant on aircraft carriers? It costs a lot of money to train a soldier, and then throw it away because we introduced the sex dynamic in the barracks. I'd also like to know what pregnant soldiers and sailors cost the military. Isn't it the duty of society to make the condition of the combat soldier better rather than worse? After all, they are going into harm's way and leaving their families behind, losing body parts, losing their minds, and losing their lives to protect us as we enjoy civilian life back home.